The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Today, professional as well as non-professional users in a variety of different fields, such as engineering, architecture, automotive design, graphic design, advertising, fashion design, medicine, etc., can develop three-dimensional (3D) models of buildings, vehicles, and other objects using 3D modeling software that operates on a computing device. A user typically interacts with 3D modeling software via input devices such as a keyboard, mouse, trackball, and/or stylus, and the drafting document is displayed on a graphical display device, such as a computer monitor or screen.
In general, 3D modeling software allows a user to draw various three-dimensional shapes (directly or by defining two-dimensional faces that make up 3D shapes), apply colors and/or textures to the shapes, move, scale, rotate, and skew the shapes, etc. 3D modeling software typically provides the user with stock objects (e.g., 3D shapes such as spheres or parallelepipeds and/or two-dimensional (2D) shapes such as arcs, circles, rectangles, and other known geometric shapes) and/or provides tools to create such objects. Further, 3D modeling software typically allows users to save models as files that conform to a certain predefined format. To share models, users transmit to each other files with the corresponding model data, or upload the files to data servers.
Users usually develop 3D models by sequentially entering various drawing and image manipulation commands via a graphical user interface (GUI). For example, to model a two-story building, a user may first draw a four-wall structure, draw a door in one of the walls, then draw several windows in the walls, etc. The user may then paint or texture the walls, the roof, and other portions of the model. Accordingly, it may take a significant amount of time for a single user to develop a complex and detailed model.
Further, to modify an existing model, a user typically uses 3D modeling software to open a file that stores model data, edit the model data, and save the model data to the file. In order for another user to safely edit the model, he or she must make another copy of the file or wait until the user currently editing the model finishes the edits and closes the file. In other words, when more than one user contributes to the development of a model, 3D modeling software receives input from only one user at a time.